Tobacco Consumption
- 18.3 percent of adults (ages 15-69) in Botswana smoke tobacco.1
- Rates are much higher among men than among women: 31.4 percent of men and 4.9 percent of women smoke tobacco.1
- 3.9 percent of adults use smokeless tobacco (men 1.5 percent; women 6.5 percent).1
- Among youth (ages 13-15), 19.4 percent use tobacco products (boys 23.3 percent; girls 16.2 percent), 8.2 percent smoke cigarettes (boys 12.9 percent; girls 4.6 percent), and 15.2 percent use smokeless tobacco (boys 16.3 percent; girls 14.3 percent).2
Secondhand Smoke Exposure
- Among youth (ages 13-15), 62.1 percent are exposed to secondhand smoke in public places and 38.5 percent are exposed at home.2
Health Consequences
- Every year nearly 2,000 Botswanans are killed by smoking-caused diseases.3
- Even though fewer men and women die on average in Botswana than in other middle-income countries, still 27 men and 11 women are killed by smoking every week.3
Tobacco Industry
British American Tobacco (BAT) dominates the cigarette market.4.
FCTC Status
Botswana ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on January 31, 2005. The treaty went into effect on May 1, 2005.
Tobacco Control Policy Status
For information regarding smoke-free places, advertising and promotion, and packaging and labeling, visit the Tobacco Control Laws website.
1 Botswana Chronic Disease Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (STEPS),2014; National.
2 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 2008; National.
3 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015. Seattle, WA: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, 2017.
4 Eriksen M et al. The Tobacco Atlas, Fifth Ed. American Cancer Society;2015.
Last updated Aug. 31, 2017